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CCEHUGHT DEPQSK& 



THE YOKE 



BY 
DAVID ROY PIPER 




THE NUNC LICET PRESS 

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 






Copyright, 1914 
By The Nunc Licet Press 



OCT -6 1914 

©Q.A379904 



DEDICATED TO 



EVERYONE WHO HAS HELPED TO INSPIRE IN ME 
UNSELFISH IDEALS 



"Take my yoke upon you and learn of 
e." — Jesus Christ. 



PROEM 

THERE is among pew-renters today a 
widespread feeling of complacency. 
There is no saying of Christ's which 
justifies the Christian in an easy life. True, 
Jesus taught rest, freedom from worry, 
spiritual contentment, as the earthly re- 
wards of His Kingdom. He said, "Come 
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy- 
laden, and I will give you rest. . . . 
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, 
. . . for my yoke is easy and my 
burden is light." But nowhere said He, 
"There is no yoke, there are no burdens to 
be borne." Contrary wise, He told those 
who were desirous of following Him that 
they must be prepared to make great sac- 
rifices for the sake of His Kingdom. He 
predicted persecutions and death. He 
7 



THE YOKE 

warned His disciples in the parable of the 
sower that they were destined often to 
labor in vain, and hence their work would 
be disheartening and despair-provoking. 
He declared that he who would not for- 
sake father or mother, brother or sister or 
wife for the sake of His truth was valueless 
to Him. Constantly He insisted that His 
followers must sacrifice their selfish de- 
sires, surrender their unworthy ambitions, 
consecrate their earthly possessions, if they 
would enter into the fulness of life in the 
Kingdom of God. 

Let us take a single sentence as con- 
centrating these teachings of Christ into 
a compact whole: "If any man will come 
after me, let him deny himself, and take 
up his cross, and follow me. " 

Christ does not say, "This is one way of 

pleasing me." He does not say, "I would 

suggest that this is the most advisable way 

of obedience. " But He says, " If any man 

8 



PROEM 

will, let him do this." Let him! It has 
the force of an imperative. He must. 
There is only one Master, and He lived 
only one life. Hence there is only one way 
to imitate Him. This is one of the most 
incisive statements the Master ever uttered. 
There need be no theological disputes over 
the meaning of this passage, . . . and 
indeed there would have been few over any 
passage, if the rabbis had conned better the 
lesson of this one. Nor can there exist 
doubt as to the universality of its applica- 
tion. " If any man will. " With that word 
any Jesus stamps this saying as having sig- 
nificance for the whole church in every age. 

These then, are the requirements of the 
religion of Jesus, the conditions of any man's 
fellowship with Him in His Kingdom: 

First, he must deny himself; 

Second, he must take up his cross; 

Third, he must follow Him. 

This is the YOKE. 
9 



"Whosoever would save his life, shall 
lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for 
my sake, the same shall save it." — Jesus 
Christ. 



SECURING THE POISE 

IN the ancient church there grew up a 
strong feeling that men could not live 
a life pleasing to God if they mingled 
in the world. Pagan tendencies had so de- 
prived the world of a distinctly moral aim, 
pagan customs had so filled the world with 
the atmosphere of license, heathen religions hi mse if y 
had become so debauched by the indiscrim- 
inate mingling of gods good and bad in the 
great pantheon of the later empire, and the 
unprecedented prosperity of Rome had so 
encouraged the materialistic tendencies 
which cropped out with the realization that 
the old religion was but a system of myths, 
— that men who came into contact with the 
vital spiritual impulse of Christianity felt 
13 



THE YOKE 

they must flee from all which would tempt 
them to breathe in again the atmosphere in 
which they had been reared. And so they 
absented themselves from the haunts of 
men. Some went into the deserts seeking 
escape from all that would suggest the evil 
thoughts which had formerly controlled 
them. Others sought out caves. And 
where desert and cave were too remote, 
monasteries were built on lonely rocks. 

By and by, however, men began to dis- 
cover that even the stone walls of a mon- 
astery will not shut sin out of the life. For 
there is a whole world in a single man, — a 
world of sin and self-seeking. Some of 
these old monks found themselves falling 
a readier prey to the sins which beset them 
in their seclusion, than if they had lived 
in the haunts of men. There is no escape 
from the presence of sin. The only escape 
is from its power. The early ascetic con- 
ception of a life of self-denial was, there- 
14 



SECURING THE POISE 

fore, a false one. Self-denial is not ab- 
sence from the world; it is absence of self. 

The modern church has never advocated 
such a life as the ascetics of the early period 
attempted to pursue, for it would be utterly 
impracticable in this age of commercial 
activity, when existence itself has become 
contingent upon uninterrupted intercourse 
with our fellows. But a doctrine not es- 
sentially different has been preached with 
vigor in some quarters. This opinion 
would have it that the Christian must "give 
up" certain specified pleasures. The doc- 
trine grew partly out of a deep, though per- 
haps morbid, religious feeling; partly out 
of ignorance of the healthful elements in 
some of the pleasures listed in this Index 
Prohibitorum; and partly, perhaps, out of a 
misapplication of the saying of the great 
apostle, that if meat make my brother to 
offend, I will eat no more meat. The 
christian life is not a life of license; but 
15 



THE YOKE 

neither is self-denial a series of acts by 
which one deprives himself of a certain 
specified list of worldly pleasures and goods. 
Religion is concerned not with the regula- 
tion, but with the motivation, of conduct. 
And a life lived after this modern ascetic 
pattern is an argument against itself. It 
is a demonstration that there is behind the 
outward act no deep-seated, abiding fellow- 
ship with God. For such fellowship would 
lead to a free and spontaneous, and not a 
ritualistic, flow of action. Real religion is 
natural, and regenerates not the action 
first, but the principles from which action 
springs. The man who had really denied 
himself would not ask, "What must I do to 
be saved?" For this is a question of self- 
recognition. Did Jesus ask Himself such 
questions? He saved others. It did not 
occur to Him to save Himself. 

Turn to the fourth chapter of Matthew, 
and let the Master illustrate His own pre- 
16 



SECURING THE POISE 

cept. In the gigantic scene there por- 
trayed, the Lord of Heaven is taken upon 
a very high mountain so that He may look 
out, and with His spiritual vision behold 
all the kingdoms of the world, their glory, 
their wealth, their power. And in the 
seeing He feels His own powers rise within 
Him; His ambitions surge like billows 
against the rock walls of His soul. The 
voice of Satan speaks: "All these things 
will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and 
worship me." Jesus replies, "Get thee 
hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt 
worship the Lord thy God, and him only 
shalt thou serve." With that answer 
Satan leaves Him. With that, Christ re- 
nounces self, casts forever behind Him the 
call of this world to wealth, power, pleasure, 
and ease. And henceforth through all His 
ministry the Saviour leads a self-denying 
life, pleading with men, healing men, bless- 
ing men; fleeing from publicity, shunning 
17 



THE YOKE 

praise and popularity. The supremacy of 
God's will and the urgency of man's need 
become henceforth the presuppositions of 
His conduct. 

In the light of the Master's life there can 
be no doubt as to the sternness of this re- 
quirement that the disciple shall deny him- 
self. In the same meaning of the word in 
which it is said that Peter made his so 
nearly fatal mistake, — denied his Lord, — 
in that same sense is the disciple to deny 
himself, refuse longer to know himself, and 
know and acknowledge only Christ and the 
aims of His Kingdom. 

There is a famous statue by an American 
sculptor, which embodies the thought that 
there are two natures in man struggling 
for the mastery. The work represents the 
better nature rising over the almost-pros- 
trate form of the worse, whose abundant 
physique suggests brutality, whose face is 
the very portrait of lust. The other figure 
18 



SECURING THE POISE 

is more lithe and graceful. No longer 
locked in the deadly conflict, it has freed 
itself, and with foot planted on the pros- 
trate form, bends forward as though in 
search of visions. The thought in this 
statue embodies all that is involved in self- 
denial: the struggle, represented in the 
work as a whole; the lower nature held 
down, and the new man rising in aspira- 
tion, now unconscious of the evil genius at 
his feet. Had the artist portrayed the 
better nature still involved in the conflict, 
the picture would be incomplete. True 
self-denial costs a struggle. It means the 
putting down of self. But it has a more 
positive aspect. The purer nature must 
become unconscious of the worse, absorbed 
in visions and ideals of the heavenly life. 

A child will not learn to do good merely 

by being told to avoid evil. He must have 

something good proposed to him. No more 

can the soul learn renunciation merely by 

19 



THE YOKE 

striving against the evil nature. An ar- 
tistic sense will not be developed simply 
by taking the lewd pictures from the wall. 
Beautiful pictures must be hung in their 
stead. So long as we merely will not to 
yield to temptation the very determination 
itself suggests the evil, and often makes us 
more helpless before it. It is better to pray 
for God's help to do right than to ask 
divine aid not to commit wrong. If we 
deny ourselves we forget ourselves. We 
cannot forget ourselves so long as we insist 
on thinking about ourselves. And we can- 
not cease thinking about ourselves until we 
begin thinking about something better. 
The man in the statue has forgotten the 
baser being at his feet in the gleam, the 
vision, which his pure eye has caught. If 
we would indeed meet the requirement of 
the Master, we must throw our whole 
might into the knowing of God's will and 
the doing it. 



SECURING THE POISE 

The attainment of self-denial therefore 
requires the tireless pushing upward of our 
christian ideals. There can be no resting 
on past laurels. He who stops to meditate 
on what he has given up has not yet given 
it up. Renunciation implies forgetfulness 
of the thing renounced. Self-renunciation 
resolves itself into self-oblivion. It is not 
I, but Christ who liveth in me. 

Self-consciousness is one of the greatest 
hindrances to effective work in the min- 
istry. The minister or orator who con- 
sciously seeks to gain a hearing for him- 
self seldom succeeds in doing so. The 
message must master the man, if the man is 
to master the audience. So also it is neces- 
sary for every christian to identify him- 
self with the message of his Christ. Like 
the wilderness prophet, we are to be, not 
Elijahs nor Jeremiahs, but Voices for God. 
Hence it is only in so far as we sensitize 
and surrender every power to the full use 



THE YOKE 

of the Master that His Spirit can use us to 
speak, and to teach, and to live the divine 
message which God has intended us to com- 
municate. It is said of Haydn that he 
never attempted to compose until he had 
prayed, and of Gounod that he had the face 
of the Christ carved upon his instrument 
to remind him whose power he needed in 
his work. These great masters of music 
doubtless had a divine calling, but so have 
we. We are God's voices in the world, 
God's lives to be lived pure before men. 

Yet is the world full of "christian" 
people who love pleasure more than they 
love God, whose ideal is comfort, to whom 
self-repression is repulsive. They will not 
put pressure on themselves; they will not 
give their means, they will not sacrifice 
their leisure moments or their culture, — 
so-called. Much less will they deny them- 
selves for the sake of making the world a 
little better. Yet they think they are 



SECURING THE POISE 

obedient servants of Christ. They need 
to learn the lesson of the old legend: 

A subject consulted his king as to how 
he might escape the enticements of the 
world. The king commanded him to fill 
a goblet with wine to the very brim, and 
carry it through the streets of the city. An 
executioner was ordered to follow him, 
charged to remove his head should he spill 
a single drop on the ground. The man 
carried the goblet in safety, and returned 
to the palace. "What did you see by the 
way?" asked the king, when he came back. 
"Did you see the traders in the market- 
place, the jugglers on the street?" The 
man replied that he had not seen them. 
His mind had been so absorbed in his task 
that not a thought wandered to the in- 
teresting scenes by the way. " So learn thy 
lesson." Said the king. "Become ab- 
sorbed in God, and thou shalt be dead to the 
enticements of the world." 
23 



THE YOKE 

It is just in proportion as our thoughts 
dwell in God, and in the task of lifting the 
world up to Him that we lose our selfishness 
and find ourselves. May it be our whole 
ambition so to forget ourselves that His 
Spirit may flow through us, that His great 
power may use all our weak powers; that 
like Jesus, we may live vicarious lives, and 
fill well the place God has for us to fill in the 
world. 

"Measure thy life by loss instead of gain, 

Not by the wine drunk, but by the wine poured 

forth, 
For life's strength standeth in life's sacrifice." 



24 



Not he who scorns the Saviour's yoke 
Should wear His cross upon the heart. 

— Schiller, 



H 



II 

LIFTING THE LOAD 

11 ^ f E that doth not take up his cross 
and come after me is not worthy 
of me. " These words carry our 

minds forward in the story of Jesus' career to And take up 
, . i TT . .,. ~ , his cross, 

the time when we see Him toiling up Cal- 
vary. The curious crowd is thronging Him 
as He passes down the street of the Holy 
City which since has been called the Via 
Dolorosa. The day is bright after the long 
night of trial and suspense, and the early 
morning of unjust cries and final condem- 
nation. The Sufferer bows beneath the 
weight of His heavy cross. The sun grows 
warmer. The crowd increases. It seems 
that all Jerusalem is pouring itself out into 
the street, intent as one man on the awful 
27 



THE YOKE 

event which is about to transpire upon the 
neighboring height; but whose significance 
the city does not grasp. An innocent per- 
son has become the victim of a corrupt 
political machine, whose power He has 
antagonized. It is appalling, to be sure, 
but it has happened before. They do not 
realize that the man, whose death-agonies 
they are about to witness, is the Saviour of 
the World. 

Now they are out upon the road. The 
way becomes more rugged. The ascent is 
begun. The flesh of the brave Christ, 
weakened through the night of heart- 
break, is no longer sufficient for the load 
of the heavy cross. The rough soldiers 
with mailed hands lay hold upon a passer- 
by, one Simon, of Cyrene, and impress him 
into service. He bears the tree behind 
the Prisoner. The brow of Calvary is 
reached. Above the fearful silence of the 
crowd, broken by the wailing of women, the 



LIFTING THE LOAD 

thud of the mallet is heard as it drives the 
cruel nails through the flesh of hands and 
feet. The moments then pass like hours; 
but at length it is finished. 

The disciples scatter, then assemble 
again until Pentecost. They brood over 
the meaning of it all. Many sayings of 
their Master, once obscure, have been made 
clear by the events of the Last Week. 
They recall that He said to them before 
His death, "He that doth not take up his 
cross and come after me is not worthy of 
me." The significance of these words 
flashes upon them. And Matthew goes 
home and records this among his remem- 
bered sayings of Jesus. So it has come 
down to us. And in the light of this last 
morning of the Saviour's life, its meaning 
to us also becomes clear. 

The cross was but the culmination of 
Jesus' career. For He lived a vicarious 
life as well as suffered an unjust death. 
29 



THE YOKE 

The physical burden of Calvary was but a 
symbol typifying His whole life-work. 
Jesus constantly carried crosses. He bore 
the cross of pain for the diseased; He carried 
the load of grief for the sorrowing; He 
lifted the weight of sin, the burden of in- 
famy, from the penitent souls of men. 
From the time of the climactic forty days 
in the wilderness He bore penalty for the 
sins of others. 

For the blunders of His people Christ 
consciously suffered. He suffered with 
the weak against the strong, with the op- 
pressed as a protest against the oppressor. 
He sought the at-one-ment of man with 
God; and in order to bring about that filial 
obedience He threw Himself into the 
breach, and eventually expired upon the 
cross, failing of the immediate accomplish- 
ment, but inspiring His disciples with zeal 
to take up the mission He had left un- 
finished. 

30 



LIFTING THE LOAD 

The Master desires His followers today 
who seek to be worthy of Him, to con- 
tinue this work of at-one-ment in the world. 
It is true that Christ alone, and only 
Christ, was a sufficient propitiation for our 
sins. But the actual reconciliation, the 
at-one-ment of will between man and 
God, is in fact not complete. If it were, 
christian work would be unnecessary. 
Hence the little band whom Christ com- 
missioned to take up the work He had left 
off, were commissioned to carry crosses, to 
live vicariously as He had lived, to lose 
their prestige, their property, their friends, 
their lives, if need were, in order to ac- 
complish the at-one-ment. 

Possibly as much because it stands for 
this exalted mission as because it repre- 
sents the love of a suffering Father, the 
cross has always been a symbol loved by 
christians. ... In one of the re- 
cently discovered Odes of Solomon, — the 
31 



THE YOKE 

hymn-book of the first-century church, — 
we find this beautiful thought: I stretched 
out my hands and sanctified the Lord; 
for the extension of my hands is His 
sign; and my expansion the upright 
tree." (Ode 27). 

The early christian delighted to find the 
cross everywhere in the outward world: 
in the handle of the laborer's plough; in 
the mast and yards of the seaman's ship; 
and in the human body, when the devotee 
stands erect with outstretched arms in the 
act of prayer. This was beautiful; and for 
awhile the early christians did not forget 
that the cross was more than merely a 
mystic token of Christ. For they labored 
among the same classes to whom Christ 
ministered. But the cross has not always 
meant to the church what the Master in- 
tended it to mean. After awhile the church 
forgot. The cross became a superstitious 
symbol. Ecclesiasticism took the place of 
32 



LIFTING THE LOAD 

self-abnegation. Foolish penances were 
used as conscience-soothers in 'substitution 
for service to others. 

Too many christians have been like the 
blind man of a Caucasian village, who was 
returning from the river one night, bring- 
ing a pitcher of water, and carrying a 
lighted lantern in his hand. Someone 
meeting him, said: "It's all one to you 
whether it is day or night. Why should 
you carry the lantern?" "I do not carry 
the lantern to light my way," replied the 
blind man, "but to keep people like you 
from stumbling against me and breaking 
my pitcher." Too many folks have used 
religion for protection only, taking the 
name of Christ as a guarantee against the 
filth of the world, or a life-insurance policy 
good in heaven. Too often it has been 
true that "men will wrangle for religion; 
write for it; fight for it; die for it; any- 
thing but — live for it." 
33 



THE YOKE 

Today, however, the church is becoming 
thoroughly awake to the message of the 
cross. The message of salvation through 
Christ? Yes, that is one message. But 
to the other message of the cross, — the 
obligation of the individual and the church 
to sacrifice self for the social and religious 
salvation of the community, and of the 
world. We speak of the working christian. 
The adjective is superfluous. There is no 
christian who is not a working christian. 
"He that doth not take up his cross and 
come after me is not worthy of me. " 

Let us call to mind a few of Christ's 
teachings concerning this matter: 

A young man once came to Jesus, 
and, overcome with enthusiasm, declared, 
"Master, I will follow thee whithersoever 
thou goest." Jesus turned and made this 
reply: "The foxes have holes, the birds 
of the air have nests, but the Son of Man 
hath not where to lay His head." Christ 

34 



LIFTING THE LOAD 

desired this young man to know that he 
must become His Master's companion in 
privation and suffering. Enthusiasm un- 
warned has too often spent itself in words 
and promises, just as love to God is fre- 
quently dissipated in emotional feeling 
until the well-springs of action- are ex- 
hausted. 

On a second occasion Jesus beckoned to 
a man in the crowd, bidding him follow. 
" Suffer me first to go and bury my father, " 
the man replied. Jesus said: "Let the 
dead bury their own dead, but go thou and 
publish abroad the Kingdom of God." 
Harsh reply? Perhaps. Stern, at least. 
But Jesus was on a stern mission, one that 
required manhood, and the sacrifice of 
the dearest ties, and the neglect of the most 
sacred rites. Here was one who had 
caught a vision of his spiritual opportunity. 
Should he go back home and allow the 
vision to fade? No. There were plenty 
35 



THE YOKE 

of dead men at home, men deaf and dumb 
and blind to all spiritual appeal. They 
could bury a corpse. But this man, he 
must follow the gleam he had caught. 

Action is what Christ wants. The 
spread of the Kingdom; its realizement in 
the hearts of all men, and in the ideal 
human society which its principles will cre- 
ate through the power of the Holy Spirit, 
— this is the work of at-one-ment which 
Christ asks of us. Enthusiasm, prayers, 
resolves for the future are of no effect 
unless they lead to action. Go out now, 
and do the thing that lies at hand to be 
done for God's Kingdom. Dream, if you 
must, at night. But while it is day, work. 
In time of war a soldier is good only on the 
field of battle. 

The idea somewhat prevails that the 

heroic days of the church are past. Once 

the church was persecuted and then it 

needed martyrs. Today, in America, the 

36 



LIFTING THE LOAD 

church is not persecuted, hence martyrs 
are not in demand. How much harder it is 
to find heroes in peace than in war! It 
may be the days of suffering, — enduring, I 
mean, — for Christ's sake are past. But 
only so because the days of christian hero- 
ism are past. Believe me, the church still 
needs martyrs. Not martyrs who will shed 
their blood and die; martyrs who will keep 
their blood and live; martyrs who will give 
to, and past, the point of sacrifice, of their 
time, energy, means, for the service of God, 
and for procuring justice and mercy among 
men. A live martyr today is worth more 
than ten dead ones. Until we have tasted 
some sufferings for the sake of helping 
Godward the community in which we live, 
let us be sure we have not tasted the full 
joy of the christian life. To produce an 
appetite, work. To produce a capacity 
to enjoy the bounties of grace, christian 
work. We are made perfect through suffer- 
37 



THE YOKE 

ing, — not the suffering of sickness, or 
earthly misfortune, but the suffering of 
difficult, discouraging, self-sacrificing labor, 
— the suffering of at-one-ment. 

I have used the word suffering; but only 
for lack of a better word. The alchemy of 
love transforms suffering into contentment. 
" Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye are 
led into manifold trials, " should be to us not 
merely an exhortation; it should be an ex- 
perience. The early christians did have 
this experience of joy in the midst of trial. 
Read that remarkable statement in the 
latter part of the thirteenth chapter of 
Acts. It tells us that "The Jews stirred 
up a persecution against Paul and Barna- 
bas, and cast them out of their borders. " 
And immediately it adds, "and the dis- 
ciples were filled with joy." Joy in the 
very presence of persecution and calamity! 
This is most remarkable; yet it is perfectly 
natural to one in whose heart is established 
38 



LIFTING TEE LOAD 

that Kingdom of God, which Paul declares 
"is righteousness, and peace, and joy in 
the Holy Spirit." 

The love of Christ and of the brethren 
transforms the entire human conception of 
duty, of hindrances, of trials and suffering. 
It turns them all into the joy of loving ser- 
vice, and the happiness of victory over the 
world. It was Ruskin who compared the 
christian to grass: "You roll it, and it is 
stronger the next day; mow it, and it mul- 
tiplies its shoots as if it were grateful; 
tread upon it, and it sends up richer per- 
fume. Now these two characteristics, hu- 
mility and joy under trial, are exactly those 
which most definitely distinguish the Chris- 
tian from the pagan spirit." 

His yoke is easy and His burden is light, 
because of the love and the joy of humble 
service. Ian Maclaren tells a sweet story 
of his native Scotland. While sauntering 
along a country lane one hot afternoon he 
39 



THE YOKE 

met a bonnie wee lassie who was very red 
in the face from the heat, and who breathed 
heavily under the burden of a chubby 
youngster she carried in her arms. 

"Isn't he too heavy for you?" inquired 
the kindly minister. 

"He's no' hiwy, sir," came the reply, 
with a smile of loving pride. "He's ma 
brither. " And are not all men brothers in 
Christ? 

Now these burdens of love and humility 
rest not only on individuals, but on the 
church as an institution. It, too, must 
bear the cross of Christ. One day as I 
was returning to my room after a long walk 
through one of the suburbs of Cincinnati, 
chancing to look up into the sky, my eye 
was arrested by a strange sight. In the 
south at an angle of thirty degrees from the 
horizon there shone in the midst of a cloud 
a cross of gold, glistening in the last rays of 
the setting sun. I stopped, amazed and 
40 



LIFTING THE LOAD 

mystified. For a moment I was stricken 
with awe. Then I realized that I was below 
the suburb in which stands the Catholic 
Church of St. Francis de Sales, with the 
tallest spire in the middle west. The cross 
I saw, apparently alone and unsupported 
in the sky, was the cross of gold reared 
aloft upon that spire. The steeple had 
been blended into the cloud, the cross 
caught by the dying sun in his majesty. 
The church in every community should be 
like that vision, should arrest the attention 
of every man, woman, and child in the 
whole scope of its territory, bidding him 
behold the cross of Christ. But the church, 
like the steeple should be blended in the 
cloud, lost to sight. 

That Chicago pastor who has for his 
motto, "The church for the community, 
not the community for the church," has 
the correct ideal of the institution which 
Christ established. Only when the church 
41 



THE YOKE 

is as a whole giving itself in social, in- 
dustrial, and spiritual ministrations to its 
people, is it bearing radiant witness to 
Christ and the Christ-message. 

A church-goer once asked his pastor, 
"Do you not think the church has wasted 
a great deal of time since it was founded?" 
The pastor's answer was correct: "Yes, 
indeed, it has." The church has wasted 
time trying to shift its cross from its 
shoulders; sometimes by putting the whole 
task upon its clergy, sometimes by deny- 
ing its duty, sometimes by just lazily and 
thoughtlessly shirking. The church has 
frequently sought to fulfil its duty and 
avoid the effort involved. Much of its 
pious resolution has been evaporated in 
vapid worship and overplus of devotions. 
The past has been a time of overstress on 
sermons and hymns, and under-stress on 
action. In many instances worship has 
apparently become an end in itself, all the 
42 



LIFTING THE LOAD 

time and wealth of the church being ex- 
pended in nursing its own fervor. No 
wonder her leaders have discovered that 
our day has great problems for the church 
to solve. Henry Drummond once truly 
said that the most of the difficulties of try- 
ing to live the christian life come from try- 
ing to half-live it. The big difficulties of 
the present day have accumulated in no 
small part because in the recent past the 
church has been trying to half-live its 
mission. 

With the passing of the age of shirking 
will pass also the time-dishonored plan of 
concentrating all the evangelistic energies 
of the church into a three or four weeks' re- 
vival "effort." If the church is to have 
special harvesting seasons it must spend 
the rest of its time sowing. And there is 
no reason why the harvest should not be 
gathered in at every season. For if the 
church shoulders its cross as it should, it 
43 



THE YOKE 

will exert enough self-sacrifice to be at work 
all the time. The Devil never sleeps. 
Why should the church stand like a grave- 
stone six days a week, with the key in the 
sexton's pocket? What counts is being 
everlastingly at it, day after day, week 
after week, month after month; using every 
manner of organization which will bring 
us in touch with men, then winning them 
to Christ through the power of a conse- 
crated personality. 

" If any man will come after me let him — 
take up his cross." "He that doth not 
take up his cross and come after me is not 
worthy of me." This is the call of Christ 
to the heroic in us. When Garibaldi 
would raise up patriots for Italy, he called: 
"I do not offer you pay, provisions, quar- 
ters; I offer you hunger, thirst, forced 
marches, battles, and death." And 
Young Italy took up arms and followed 
him. It was the appeal to the heroic that 

44 



LIFTING THE LOAD 

led them to sacrifice. It was the sense of 
the heroic in their calling which led the men 
of the early centuries to follow the Christ 
to death. And when this heroic challenge 
of the Master to serve, to sacrifice, to en- 
dure for His sake, is raised aloud throughout 
the church, the ranks will be rilled, and our 
Lord will go forth, conquering and to con- 
quer. 



45 



"Follow me and I will make you fishers 
of men." — Jesus Christ. 



I 



III 

TAKING THE RIGHT PATH 

DO not doubt that when Jesus uttered 
the words quoted in the margin, He 
meant them literally. He placed loy- 



alty to Himself first. But He did this be- Let him 

follow me. 
cause of what He stood for. He was the 

divinely chosen founder of the New Age. 
Obedience to Him was necessary for any- 
one who would enter the Kingdom and en- 
joy its blessings. Christ declared this 
Kingdom to be at hand, not in its con- 
summation, but in the beginning of its re- 
alization. He gathered disciples about 
Him and taught them His ideals so that 
what He began might be perpetuated 
through them. We are therefore justified, 
in our knowledge that this was Jesus' plan 

49 



THE YOKE 

for ushering in the New Age, in inter- 
preting this summons, "Follow me," so as 
to mean the embracing of the principles 
Jesus cherished, and the pursuit of His 
aims. 

The primitive church was indeed an or- 
ganized nucleus with the definite purpose 
of learning the character and ideals of 
Jesus and disseminating them throughout 
the community. Discipleship involves an 
obligation clearly understood. The in- 
dividual is saved in order that he may help 
to save society to the Kingdom of God. 

"Philip findeth Nathanael." If the 
church, like the " Catch-My-Pal " society 
for the redemption of drunkards, should 
impose upon every candidate for member- 
ship the obligation of securing a friend for 
Christ, it would perhaps be going beyond 
its prerogatives. But only because re- 
sults lie with God. It is the duty of the 
church to impress upon every candidate for 
50 



TAKING THE RIGHT PATH 

membership the fact that in entering the 
organization he is banding himself with 
others for the definite purpose of propagat- 
ing the principles and ideals of Jesus, and 
making them effective in the regeneration 
of men. There are church members who 
are not members of the Kingdom. ' Not be- 
cause they are hypocrites, but because, 
while they have been truly the recipients 
of the blessings of Christ, their lives have 
not been consciously dominated by the 
purpose of Christ. 

Catching is the result of fishing. We are 
not altogether responsible for the catch. 
We are responsible for setting the lines, and 
watching them, too. "The speedy bring- 
ing of the world to Christ is a consequence. 
The speedy bringing of Christ to the world 
is the necessary preliminary." 

The call of Christ to the fishermen of 
Galilee involved the abandonment of a sec- 
ular pursuit for a spiritual work. There 
5i 



THE YOKE 

is but one vocation for him who aspires to 
be a follower of Jesus. He must be a 
fisherman. You have heard about the 
man whose occupation was being a chris- 
tian, but who made shoes for a living. 
Paul's vocation was the gospel, but he 
made tents for expenses. To eat and sleep, 
to get money and spend it or hoard it, to 
have pleasure and selfish comfort, — that 
is to exist. But to live is Christ. When 
the passion for the souls instead of the 
dollars of men fills the horizon of aspiration 
for both rich and poor, there will cease to 
be any upper and lower classes. 

Every genuine follower of the Master is, 
or comes to be, a fisher of men. There are 
various ways of fishing, to be sure. There 
are various processes needful to bring men 
to Christ. He gave some to be apostles, 
and some evangelists, and some pastors and 
teachers. But the purpose of all is the 
same, — to " attain unto the unity of the 
52 



TAKING THE RIGHT PATH 

faith": that the whole world may be 
united in the faith of the Master. 

The Saviour's mission was fulfilled by 
living a life and dying a death. And the 
church's mission is a mission of life-giving 
by live contact. The disciples first had 
contact with the Son of God. Then they 
made contact with the world. It is signifi- 
cant that this word, "follow" of Matthew 
1 6: 24 has in the Greek two meanings. 
First, it means to be one's companion; 
then, to conform wholly to one's example. 
This is the logical order in discipleship. 
The twelve were not fishers of men, — not 
conformers to the example of Jesus, not in 
any complete sense propagators of His 
teaching, until after the resurrection. It is 
well for the christian to have a period of in- 
cubation. But as soon as the message of 
Jesus is thoroughly understood in its bear- 
ings on life the time has arrived to "con- 
form wholly," to bend one's whole energy 
S3 



THE YOKE 

to the realization of the Kingdom of re- 
generated men. 

A lack of this preparation by long con- 
tact with the spirit and thought of Jesus 
forms a menace to the church. Our age is 
tremendously out after results. We have 
caught, or rather been caught by, the con- 
temporary spirit. Ministers and evan- 
gelists want above all else, tangible results. 
As a consequence men are persuaded to 
"surrender all," who are given no adequate 
conception of the responsibilities which are 
involved in their entrance into the church. 
We do not tell people that "The foxes have 
holes, the birds of the air have nests, but 
the Son of Man hath not where to lay His 
head. " We make it as easy and indefinite 
a proposition as possible. Among the un- 
ripe converts brought to decision by emo- 
tional campaign methods which overlook 
the element of instruction in the meaning 
of the christian life, there is especially to be 
54 



TAKING THE RIGHT PATH 

noticed a large class of semi-mystics, who 
have "found their all in Jesus," to whom 
the church-services perhaps mean some- 
thing, but service to humanity nothing. 
The semi-mystic after a few months be- 
comes an absentee member and is placed on 
the "reserve" roll. 

We need, in order to be true christians, a 
more patient study of the life-principles of 
the Master. Before we can be worthy 
disciples we must needs spend hours and 
weeks in companionship with the historic 
Jesus and other hours with the risen Christ. 
Such companionship will lead us to see in 
Jesus (i) a Man whose constant source of 
strength was God; (2) whose life was lived 
with men in all their walks and pursuits; 
(3) whose constant effort was to persuade 
men through faith and works to enter the 
Kingdom of God, and become heralds of 
that Kingdom until it shall be accomplished. 
To conform to the example of Jesus is to 
55 



THE YOKE 

make these characteristics the distinguishing 
traits of our lives. This is following Jesus. 

(i) God must be our constant companion 
and source of strength. "I and the 
Father are one," said Jesus. And He 
prays that the disciples may be one as He 
and the Father are. one. He says that as 
the Father and He have an interchange of 
life and purpose, so have the disciples with 
Him. It is possible for us to cultivate the 
friendship of the Father. If Enoch walked 
with God, so may we. The practice of the 
divine presence will lead to a clearer un- 
derstanding of His purpose in the world; 
so that we may fit into the niche for which 
we were intended in His Kingdom. No, 
not the niche, the harness. There are no 
statues needed, but lives. 

The best contemplation of God is the 
contemplation of Christ. For in Christ 
God lives. Submission to the Divine, un- 
interpreted by a life, would issue in that 
56 



TAKING THE RIGHT PATH 

oriental and medieval mysticism which in- 
variably puts the christian into a lethargic 
sleep, keeping him blissfully unconscious 
of his duty in the world. Pure religion and 
undefiled is a religion of doing and living. 
If we come in touch with the real God of 
whom Jesus Christ is the only perfect mani- 
festation, we are placed in contact not 
only with a boundless Love, but with an 
active Force, a powerful Dynamic, a live 
Purpose. The Purpose is the perfection 
of the race through the realization of a 
harmonious fellowship between man and 
his fellowman, and between man and God. 
The Force, the Dynamic, the Love all con- 
tribute to the fulfilment of the Purpose. 
To more fully know how this purpose re- 
lates to our own lives we must keep com- 
pany with God. We must study Christ, 
who is God with us, and that not in the 
church fathers or the creeds, but in His 
own utterances and acts. 
57 



THE YOKE 

(2) Our lives must be lived with men, in 
full sympathy with their struggles, com- 
passion for their failures, and exultation in 
their successes. No cloister for us. For 
us the haunts of men; the field, the street, 
the shop, the mart, the feast, the palace, 
the hovel, the jail, the almshouse. When 
Christ was in Palestine he walked with 
crowds of sinners, he ate with publicans 
and harlots. "Is the disciple above his 
Master, or the servant above his lord?" 

We should even be willing to lose a por- 
tion of our own purity, if it were necessary, 
to increase the purity of society. But 
that is never necessary, if our lives are 
really transformed by the power from 
above. Jane Addams tells us in, "Twenty 
Years at Hull House," that no one ever 
dared to use profanity in the presence of 
her father, feeling the sternly righteous 
character of the man in his very bearing. 
Such in much greater degree must have 
58 



TAKING THE RIGHT PATH 

been the influence of Christ upon the 
crowds. Such should be the influence of 
every christian. Purity is not lost by 
living in redeeming contact with impurity. 

(3) We must make a constant effort to 
persuade men to enter the Kingdom. When 
once the character of Jesus has been learned 
it must be propagated. Men first come 
into vital contact with Christ as lived in 
a human being. Then with God as lived 
in the historic Jesus. And seeing the life 
of Jesus lived out in his followers, observing 
their superiority to sorrow, their fearless- 
ness in the face of the odds which this world 
presents, their conquest-power over sin 
and the baser desires, they learn to covet 
this conquering and purifying spirit in 
their own lives. And only when they 
have desired Him does the Christ come to 
men. Our lives must cause the desire for 
Christ to spring to consciousness in the 
lives of others. 

59 



THE YOKE 



To follow Jesus is to spend our whole 
energy striving in love to teach men the 
value of the Kingdom of Heaven. 



60 



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